Concentrates Chemistry news from the week
▸ Highlights Collagen found in dinosaur bone, perhaps New mechanism for a methylating enzyme Chemists construct heterocycle missing link Trump meets with pharmaceutical executives Full-year chemical earnings for 2016 Porton buys chemistry service firm J-Star Congress considers revoking chemical safety rule Chemist among Quebec shooting victims
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POLICY
Scientists speak out against Trump immigration ban far more than the other countries covered by the ban. Universities scrambled to help international students and scholars who were held in airports or turned back. sought by the order, and sets potential “The order is stranding students who precedent for future executive orders,” the have been approved to study here and are society said in a statement. ACS has 109 trying to get back to campus and threatens members in Iraq, 41 in Iran, two in Libya, to disrupt the education and research of and one in Sudan. many others,” says Mary Sue Coleman, ACS joined 151 other science organizapresident of the Association of American tions and universities in a letter to Trump Universities, a coalition of the top research Jan. 31 expressing their concerns: “Impleuniversities. She urged the Administration mentation of this policy will compromise to make it clear that the U.S. “continues the United States’ ability to attract internato welcome the most talented individuals tional scientific talent and maintain scienfrom all countries.” tific and economic leadership.” Alison Hatt, the user program director at The largest number of affected scientists Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s likely comes from Iran. Molecular Foundry, says More than 12,000 students Protesters rally outside an Iranian postdoc from an came from Iran to the U.S. JFK Airport in response to Italian research institution last year, according to data an immigration ban issued was supposed to work on a from the Institute of Interby President Donald J. project there but would be national Education. That’s Trump. unlikely to get a visa. “Our
President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on Jan. 27 barring travel to the U.S. by residents of seven Muslim-majority countries sent ripples through the chemistry enterprise. Chaos reigned as visitors from the seven countries—Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—were detained at airports or prevented from leaving on trips that had already been approved. Permanent residents who have lived in the U.S. for years were also affected. Universities, federal researchers, and companies all wrestled with what the ban would mean for them, their employees, or their students. The ban was designed to help prevent terrorist attacks, Trump said. Administrative officials say it is temporary in most cases; entry to the U.S. was suspended for 90 days for most of those affected. Syrian refugee programs were halted altogether. But enforcement has been erratic, and it’s unclear when people with visas will be allowed to enter the U.S. Scientists quickly started speaking out as stories of detained travelers, including researchers, started to circulate. By Feb. 1, more than 18,000 scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, had signed a petition opposing the order. C&EN did not uncover reports of chemists who were caught up in the immediate detentions at airports. But the normally cautious American Chemical Society, which publishes C&EN, reacted strongly. “The order itself is overly broad in its reach, unfairly targets individuals from a handful of nations, ignores established mechanisms designed to achieve the ends
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | FEBRUARY 6, 2017
CREDIT: LINDA ROSIER/POLARIS/NEWSCOM
Chemists among those affected by limit on visitors from seven countries
CREDIT: COURTESY OF NIUSHA MAHMOODI, ALI ASGHAR AGHAJANI, AND ARSALAN MIRJAFARI
researchers are definitely being impacted by the anti-immigration order.” Collaborators from other countries will be reluctant to work with U.S. scientists if this is not resolved, says Zafra Lerman, president of the Malta Conferences Foundation, which promotes international scientific and technical collaborations. “We are losing the opportunity to lead by example that was ours for so many years, and we are impacting the progress of science,” Lerman says. “By putting obstacles on science diplomacy, we will just torpedo its purpose of security and safety.” Although many companies spoke out, the life sciences industry was largely silent on the ban. Neither of the main industry groups—the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Industry Organization—commented on the executive order. Neither did major U.S. chemical companies, none of which responded to C&EN’s request for comment. Other than Iran, most of the countries with large chemical industries, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, were excluded from the order. Few big pharma firms have made a substantive statement. Allergan CEO Brent Saunders was the notable exception, tweeting on Jan. 29 that his company “is strong & bold [because] of diversity. Oppose any policy that puts limitations on our ability to attract the best & diverse talent.” Novartis said in a statement, “Upholding our steadfast commitment to associates of all nationalities and religions is core to our values as we work to address society’s most pressing health care challenges.” So far, none of its employees have experienced a disruption to business travel. Jason Kelly, founder of the small but rapidly growing start-up Ginkgo Bioworks, is concerned that the action will have a lasting impact on U.S. science. “Many of my cofounders and colleagues are immigrants or first-generation Americans from countries all over the world,” he says. “That immigrants to the U.S. play a key role in science and technology is plainly obvious—all American winners of scientific Nobel prizes last year were immigrants— but immigrants don’t have to be scientists or engineers to be deserving of respect and rights.”—ANDREA WIDENER and LINDA
WANG Immigration rules are changing. If you’re worried about how these shifts will affect you, your company, or your university, C&EN wants to hear from you for an upcoming article. E-mail us at
[email protected].
Chemists’ lives upended by ban President Donald J. Trump’s executive undergraduate summer research program order barring travel to the U.S. by resiin Minnesota because of the lengthy visa dents of seven Muslim-majority countries review process. has turned the lives of many scientists Now, unable to get back into the counupside-down. try if he leaves, Aghajani Several chemists is wondering when he’ll from Iran, home to be able to see his family most of the researchers in Iran or if he can go affected by the ban, to international confershared their stories with ences in his field, such C&EN. The unexpected as one he’d planned restriction has some to attend in Brazil this rethinking the wisdom summer. of doing science in the Part of the appeal Provencher and Mahmoodi U.S. of studying in the U.S., The ban has had an Aghajani says, was the immediate effect on bioorganic chemist idea “that no matter who you are or where Niusha Mahmoodi, an Iranian citizen who you come from, you are welcome and can recently completed her doctorate at Uniresearch whatever you want.” But the versity of British Columbia. executive order has cast a long shadow. Mahmoodi was far along in the process He had assumed he’d stay in the U.S. for of securing an H-1B visa to his postdoc, “but now, I don’t do postdoc work at Albert know if I want to do that. I’m Einstein College of Medicine. considering other countries.” But after the order was anArsalan Mirjafari, an assisnounced, Mahmoodi got an tant professor at Florida Gulf e-mail telling her a scheduled Coast University, is worried visa interview had been canthat the travel ban will affect celed because of the execuhis ability to mentor his stutive order. dents. The restrictions will She was shocked and make it difficult to go to interAghajani confused. Not only was the national conferences where position an amazing career he can expose his undergradopportunity, but it would have put her uates—primarily underrepresented minoricloser to her husband, Philip Provencher, ties with graduate school ambitions—to who in August began graduate studies in senior scientists in his field of ionic liquids. Erik Sorensen’s lab at Princeton University. Mirjafari is also anxious about his ability Mahmoodi says she is to maintain partnerships with overwhelmed by the support other academics who help from American friends and him with funding and instruthe staff at Albert Einstein. mentation that his school But the upheaval is profound. lacks. “I’m from a smaller “At the end of the day, it school, and I need collaboradoesn’t matter what happens; tion to survive,” he says. I have lost,” Mahmoodi says. David Rahni, an If the visa eventually comes Iranian-American professor at through, “every night I will go Pace University and cofounder to sleep fearful that maybe Mirjafari of the ACS Iranian Chemists they’ll revoke something they Association, worries about gave me yesterday.” And, “if I don’t get the the lasting psychological effects of the visa, again I’ve lost because I might not be restrictions. Foreign students will start able to be with Phil for another five or six looking to other countries to continue their years.” education, and foreign-born faculty will While Mahmoodi is barred from entry, lower their expectations of what they can Ali Asghar Aghajani can’t leave. When accomplish scientifically, he says. Aghajani was granted a visa to attend “If you’re humiliated and subject to graduate school at the University of Illia barrage of such bellicose orders, even nois, Urbana-Champaign, just days before if you’re a naturalized American citiclasses began in August, he was relieved. zen, your stamina will be shattered,” he The year before he’d missed out on an says.—LISA JARVIS
FEBRUARY 6, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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